The day of That Summer, in the rain
by Solaced Whimsy
Summary: After winning her passage back to the human world, Chihiro has gone about living normally again. Time goes on, life goes by. It's hard to live completely normally, though, when you've got a promise, years in fulfillment, to be kept... oneshot for now.


So, Myoubi here. Been a while, hasn't it? I haven't been writing for a while. I've got one or two (maybe) other things I'll upload soon, but for now you guys get this, the manifestation of me watching Spirited Away yesterday. I've wanted to write something dealing with Chihiro and Kohaku for a while--I just never got/get around to doing it. Laziness is a curse just as much as work is.

So here it is; my 'might-become-more-than-a-oneshot' tale of their reunion. I'm wonderful with cliffhangers, aren't I? If I get enough reviews asking for it, I'll give you all more of this. ~ So there's your incentive--READ & REVIEW, my lovelies. 3

Disclaimer: I own noooothing. For real; Miyazaki and everyone at Ghibli are so awesome that I'd never EVER try to steal anything from them.

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**The day That Summer, in the Rain.**

Surprisingly enough, Chihiro Ogino had grown into a normal young woman.

At seventeen, she went to school, made good grades, had good friends, and was in clubs too. She had her hobbies and she went out a lot with her girlfriends, and she and her parents were in a healthy family relationship. She supposed a lot of it was due to the fact that she had gotten a baby brother not long after they'd moved to their new home, which had made her feel a bit more responsible, as far as caring for him went. Her parents had had to notice her maturity, after all.

All during the week, she went to school, and afterwards went to club meetings and did afterschool activities before going home to do homework and study. She wanted to become an artist, she thought, and ever since That Summer when she had been ten, she'd been sketching and painting in her downtime. Her younger brother, Kenjiro, or Kenji, would sit in with her when she was at home, not only because her parents wanted her to watch him, but because for a young boy who was a little over ten years her junior, she and he got on very well. He was her pupil in mysticism, she'd told her friends once when they heard her telling little Kenji-kun a bedtime story about the susuwatari.

He would sit quietly and listen to her stories as she painted, chewing on the frayed and worn ear of a small stuffed mouse she'd given him when he was born. Kenji listened silently, the awed disciple, while Chihiro sat on her stool and concentrated sagely on her painting, simultaneously relaying to him any number of fantastic stories of bathhouses and witches, of gentle noh-faces and of river gods. Sometimes Chihiro mused to herself that she just felt like telling the stories to keep them alive in her memory.

Not that she'd ever really forget.

You never _did_ truly forget.

She wore the little band every day. The shimmering little band, woven together for her by her friends. Obaa-san had said it would protect her; and she still believed it. She'd been driven to make the best of life after that venture; and while she'd gotten very interested in mythology after That Summer, she'd never told anyone about her journey. Well, except Kenji, who knew the tale to be about a young girl named Mari. When she'd gotten into middle school, she'd gotten together with a number of other people, formed a petition, and had had the district take down the apartments that were filling the Kohaku River bed. The landlord had fallen on hard times, and the buildings had since become dilapidated and uninhabitable, and Chihiro had felt like it was an omen of some kind, so she'd taken that as her opportunity. During all of that time, it had been very hard not to mention the Nigihayami Kohakunushi.

She thought sometimes that they were sending her little signs. Maybe that they were watching her. The Noh mask in the market was Kaonashi smiling at her from Obaa-san's home. He was probably sewing with her. The mouse stuffed toys seemed to grin and giggle out at her in toystores; they made her smile, thinking of Bo and the little fly-bird that traveled with her down the railroad. She would hear rustling sometimes while she was cleaning; and she'd pause for a moment, wondering if she should toss out some star-candies that she kept around.

Little things brought her back. The sounds of rain sometimes, different smells of herbs, pictures in books, even. She dreamed about them often, too. But after seven years, she was starting to think of those friends as old acquaintances that she could look back upon fondly. It wasn't so hard to accept that she probably wouldn't see them again, because they'd stay with her in memory. Sometimes she'd feel a little startled, though, wondering if maybe the fact that she thought about all of that so much was a sign itself. The time her friends had been thinking up nicknames for one another, and they'd suggested 'Sen' for her, because of the characters in her name. They'd meant it innocently, but she'd shut the book she was reading, stood up out of her desk, straightened her skirt a bit, and said,

"Names hold power, you know. I like Chihiro just fine. Besides, that one doesn't suit me at all."

And that had been that.

Physically, Chihiro had changed. She'd gotten a good deal taller, her hair had grown out some more, and she'd lost the baby fat she'd had until she was almost thirteen, to her annoyance. Slim and with a gentle look about her, Chihiro had grown into a diligent worker and studier, who took walks and painted and watched her brother, while still finding time to go out with friends. Every summer, though, she climbed the trail past the smiling statue and the little stone shrines, up through the trees where the noise from the outside world was completely cut off, to where the unchanged, hollow entrance to the fake train station stood. It still felt like walking into another world when she passed through that tunnel, and the first few times she'd almost turned around, remembering the anxiety. But every year after that, in the middle of the summer, she would head back to the rolling hills with whispering grass where the clouds seemed to touch the ground and there were still faraway smells in the distance, slipping through the air on the warm breezes. She would go as far as the little brook that she had hopped over, and then she'd stop, and just gaze out into the distance at the abandoned buildings of the old 'theme park' that she would never enter alone again. Once, she wanted to go back in. It was three years after That Summer, and she hopped on the stones over the brook, and headed up the hill, as if expecting to see all of her old friends waiting for her at the entrance to the grounds. But, there was no one. The wind died down when she neared it, and the air seemed still and lifeless. She'd lingered until it was close to nightfall, but...No smells. No sounds of rustling, no river. There was no one here. The spirits wouldn't show themselves to her again, not alone, at least. This had proved it. She almost wanted to go across the bridge again, but something held her back, just like always.

And now, seven years later, Chihiro still repeated the tradition of going back every summer. She still painted pictures of things she'd seen in Yubaba's bath house, that she'd seen on the train. She still dreamed of that place, still could smell the food there, still could smell the herbs Kamaji-san used in the boiler room.

Today, it was warm. The beginning of summer, and her vacation. She was walking today, having started earlier that morning when it was cooler out, and after a midday stop by a shrine near the Kohaku River, she'd decided to stop and paint on a little mini-canvas she'd brought in a little backpack with her. It was getting later in the afternoon, and as she headed through the trees down by the river, thunder rumbled warningly in the distance.

"Oh no..." She moaned, picking up her pace, and regretting that she didn't bring an umbrella. The rain started soon after, gentle at first, and Chihiro started running as it got harder. "No, no, no, no, no!" She squealed, heading for the awning of another small roadside shrine nearby. The rain came down around the tiny refuge in buckets now, thunder growling softly in the sky like a purring cat. The young girl sighed, turning briefly to look at the carved stone of the idol she was sharing cover with, which she found to be in the shape of a dragon. 'To Honor the Kohakunushi' it read. She smiled. Ironic; even like this, he was helping her. She wondered if he knew about all of the shrines the people here had righted for him. He'd probably be happy with them. "Hmm." She said. "I need to get home soon; the rain's going to keep up for a while, I can tell." There was no sense in rushing into the downpour, so she sat on the stone platform with the idol, and setting her pack next to her and settling in. She smiled, leaning against the wooden shrine wall and listening to the rain.

After a few moments, her eyes shut and she was letting herself drift away when suddenly she heard a voice from in front of her. It had changed, but Chihiro would know it anywhere.

"I always keep my promises, you know."

Chihiro thought she might have cried. Instead, looking up with pure joy in her eyes, she saw her childhood love, and smiled.

"Maybe I thought I forgot for a while."

"Don't you know? Once you meet someone, you never _truly_ forget them..."


End file.
